Historically, many diverse materials of various origins have been used to treat wounds by absorbing wound fluids and tissue (“exudate”) from a wound site with an absorbent material. In recent years, use of polymeric-based wound care products have become increasingly popular to control wound site environmental factors such as water vapor, oxygen permeability, bacterial impermeability, and absorption of exudate. Such wound care products are tailored to meet specific requirements including conformability to a body portion, selective adherence to a wound bed, and adhesiveness to the skin surrounding the wound site.
Recently, occlusive or moisture-retentive dressings have gained increasing acceptance in treating wounds, in particular pressure sores and ulcers. A wide variety of wound care products are known in the art for receiving, absorbing, and retaining exudate. Typically, these wound care products include polymeric foams, polymeric films, particulate and fibrous polymers, hydrogels, and hydrocolloids. Dressings with at least one of these components promote wound healing by providing a moist environment, while removing excess exudate and toxic components, and further serve as a barrier to protect the wound from secondary bacterial infection. While these known wound dressings can effectively manage a wound, many have been found to possess certain limitations or disadvantages.
Developments in the field of silicone manufacturing have led Össur hf of Reykjavik, Iceland, and assignee of the present invention, to produce silicone products adapted for skin contact that provide superb softness, and gentle skin contact. In particular, such silicone manufacturing has led to advances in improved comfort and cushioning of prosthetic suspension liners that have excellent durability and intimacy using proprietary silicone technology of Össur hf. It has been found that by applying the silicone technology of Össur hf, a silicone adhesive layer can be produced that possesses superior gentle adherence to wound sites while not damaging skin and the wound bed.
While a wound dressing having a silicone adhesive layer provides gentle adhesion to the wound and the surrounding skin, there are many instances where it is required that the wound dressing has greater tackiness in outer lying regions bordering the wound. Difficulties arise in that there must be a balance of gentle adhesion at the wound site and adjacent areas of skin so as to avoid disrupting the wound, while still providing sufficient adhesion of the dressing to accommodate movement of a patient.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a demand for an improved wound dressing that reduces wound trauma upon wound dressing changes, improves the durability and lifetime of the wound dressing, anatomically conforms to a wound, possesses improved fluid uptake, retention and removal properties, and can be securely maintained on a patient's body. It is thus desired to produce a wound dressing having an adhesive layer that does not possess the drawbacks of known adhesive layers, and instead, gently adheres and detaches from a wound site while providing superior fluid uptake. Moreover, there is a demand for a wound dressing that includes adhesive means having greater skin adherence than an adhesive layer disposed over a wound.